Spooky and Horror Board Games

The season around All Souls' Day and the originally Celtic holiday of Halloween is the perfect time for a bit of adrenaline and a spine-chilling thrill. Movies, video games, and literature are proven ways to get scared. But board games don't lag behind when it comes to spookiness. Even if you aren't likely to suffer a shock from revealing a terrifying card or get so scared you can't roll the dice.

Yes, dread can come from many things, and it doesn't have to be just the game's intended theme. For an inexperienced player, a thick rulebook with tiny print can be just as terrifying. You might even fear playing with someone who constantly nitpicks the rules. Will you muster all your courage and finish the game with them, or will you try to get rid of this annoying pest?

Board games have to rely on a thick atmosphere, sometimes high difficulty, or a terrifying story. There are plenty of horror-themed board games. Surprisingly, many of them love to work with the works of H. P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu mythos. You'll find two of them in this selection.

Arkham Horror

This board game is an absolute classic. I know several players for whom it was the gateway into the world of "big" board games. Today, it's in its third edition, which significantly simplified the rules and opened the game up to players who don't want to memorize the often overly detailed rules of the original releases.

Arkham Horror works brilliantly with the Cthulhu theme. It puts players in the role of investigators (a common approach for games from this world) who head to the mysterious city of Arkham to solve mysteries. The game introduces you to these mysteries through scenarios and snippets of information within the game itself. Players will quickly realize that Arkham is not a friendly city at all, and its inhabitants look suspicious at first glance. And that's before even revealing an Ancient One or taking a trip to an alternate dimension.

Arkham Horror is a successful cooperative board game that captivates with its elaborate scenarios and a truly thick atmosphere. If you don't mind playing the original English version, you can also enjoy a decent pile of expansions. And if you prefer cards, we highly recommend the very successful Arkham Horror LCG.

Mansions of Madness

The second game based on H. P. Lovecraft is Mansions of Madness. Once again, you are investigators arriving at strange places, once again there are various scenarios, and once again, some terrifying thing with tentacles instead of a beard eventually pops up. However, there is one fundamental difference: the use of an app that manages the scenario, determines random events, and resolves combat and puzzles.

The combination of apps and board games is increasingly popular, despite the grumbling of traditionalists. But you don't always encounter such an exemplary integration that in no way disrupts the experience of the game itself. On the contrary, it skillfully expands it. Thanks to the audio recording of the scenarios in the app, the resulting soundscape completes the right spooky atmosphere and helps with the action on the board. We know several games with similar technical solutions, but Mansions of Madness is among the best in this regard.

Mansions of Madness excels with its well-written stories, tense scenarios, and exemplary integration with the companion app. Thanks to a number of expansions, it definitely won't get old quickly. It clearly belongs among the best you can find in the cooperative board game genre.

Mysterium

Like every proper ghost story, Mysterium begins with a murder. However, the murdered person doesn't depart peacefully to the afterlife or oblivion, but remains to haunt the place. They yearn for someone to solve their murder and reveal the killer. And that is exactly the players' task. One takes the role of the ghost, the others investigate.

The game Mysterium is closest in its principles to the popular game Dixit. It is also based primarily on working with imagination, symbols, and images. The ghost gives players clues from which they must determine the place of death, the murder weapon, and finally the perpetrator themselves. It is a highly abstract experience complemented by a stylish atmosphere. The key to success is cooperation between investigators and finding common elements between individual clues.

While the game doesn't offer complex mechanics, it is very accessible because of that. Playing as the ghost might require a bit more experience, but for the others, it is a pleasant party experience that even younger children will surely enjoy.

But now we're finishing our investigation in haunted houses, and let's look at examples of games that work with fear a little differently. For example, the fear of the unknown, as in the following case.

Room 25

Do you remember the horror movie Cube? A group of people is thrown into a mysterious facility full of rooms. A surprise lurks in each one. Often quite unpleasant and deadly. They try to get out, while their numbers are constantly dwindling…

In the board game Room 25, it's exactly the same. Players start in the center of the board, with room tiles face down around them. Some don't do anything special. Some move an entire row. And entering some means certain death. Players try to carefully explore the entire system and find the exit.

Room 25 isn't demanding, and you'll have a lot of fun with it. Nothing is as satisfying as pushing a teammate somewhere they almost die, giving you a chance to escape first. But a few room shifts are enough, and the situation can quickly turn around. What more could you want?

Bloodborne: The Board Game

Sooner or later, the fear of dying enters everyone's subconscious. It's surprising how many players around the world enjoy such a worry. From Software studio has literally built a business on it. Their games are difficult, unforgiving, and as a game character, you die quickly and often.

The adaptation of the game Bloodborne is built on the same principle. The base offers 4 extensive campaigns in which players will work together to explore the streets of Yharnam, fight powerful monsters, and, of course, die. The game gives you nothing for free, and you must plan every move thoroughly. There is no luck in the game. If something goes wrong, it's your own fault.

There is also a card version of the game, which works with the same theme, but doesn't reach the quality of its bigger tabletop brother.

And finally, we've chosen one game that is suitable for teenagers and advanced children. What would a holiday of the dead be without the dead! If possible, hungry and walking ones.

Zombicide (2nd Edition)

In this game, it's all about one thing: survival. Up to 6 players stand against a drooling horde of various undead, who pour in wave after wave. Against them stand the survivors, who are still trying to find supplies, stronger weapons, and complete the tasks of 25 missions. Expansions then add new characters, enemies, and missions. You can expand the game with zombie orcs or zombie wolves.

Zombicide is not a complicated game. Thanks to that, even younger or less experienced players will enjoy it. Provided they can handle a decent dose of over-the-top cartoon violence.

author Karel Krajča